Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:08:04 PM
Plaintiff In Landmark Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit Bankrupted By Medical Bills - You And I Pick Up Her Tab
Image via Wikipedia
Rick Ungar, Contributor
3/10/2012 @ 12:10PM
Oh, the irony.
Mary Brown is your average, 56 year old Florida resident. And while you may never have heard of Mary, her name is destined to live on in American history as a key player in one of the most important legal cases ever decided by the United States Supreme Court.
Mary Brown is a name plaintiff in one of the challenges to the Affordable Care Act —Obamacare—that will be taken up by the Court in just a few weeks.
Why Mary? When the National Federation of Independent Business was preparing their court challenge, the organization needed an individual to put their name to the lawsuit. Mary Brown fit the bill.
As someone who chose not to purchase health insurance —and felt strongly that the federal government had no business telling her that she had to buy it whether she liked it or not—Mary had become an active and outspoken critic of the law. As a result, she was the perfect candidate to be a human face on the challenge to Obamacare.
As it turns out, Mary is, indeed, a great symbol for the court challenges to the ACA—but not for the side she had in mind.
Last fall, Mary Brown and her husband filed a petition of bankruptcy seeking relief for some $55,000 in debts the couple had run up when they suffered a reversal of fortune in their auto repair business. Like so many Americans who have experienced small business failures during these difficult times, Mary could no longer earn enough money in her business to keep up with her bills and she needed a way out.
The thing is, among the debts listed in the bankruptcy filing are $4500 worth of medical bills—obligations that, presumably, would have largely been paid had Mary chosen to purchase health insurance, something she will be required to do come 2014 when the insurance mandate of the healthcare reform law kicks in.
Almost half of the medical debt run up by the Browns is owed to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Florida. A spokesperson for the hospital [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ] had this say about their experience with the Browns and the many others who cannot pay their medical bills because they have chosen to remain uninsured.
“This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year,” “If it’s a bad debt, we have to absorb it.”
Of course, ‘absorbing it’ means that the loss will be passed along to the rest of us who do take responsibility for the medical obligations that, for almost all of us, are inevitable.
While the bankruptcy court will forgive Mary’s medical debt, taking Brown and her husband off the hook, this by no means suggests that the bills won’t be paid.
In fact, they will.
The bills will be paid by you and they will be paid by me. They will be paid by every American who takes responsibility for planning for their healthcare needs and, as a result, purchases health insurance in the knowledge that almost every one of us will need the coverage at some point in our lives.
The medical providers will pass along the losses suffered as a result of the Browns’ non-payment to the insurance companies by raising the prices the insurance companies pay for the services provided. The insurance companies will, in turn, pass along those increases to their customers by raising the price of our monthly premiums.
It is precisely this cost shifting away from those who will not take personal responsibility for covering the costs of their own health care and onto the rest of us that forms the very basis of the government’s argument as to why Congress acted properly and within the Constitution when creating the insurance mandate as there is a true economic consequence to most Americans when Mary decided to let the rest of us pay for her medical care.
Yes, Mary Brown will be remembered for her role in the war against Obamacare. However, it won’t be for the reason she intended.
As it turns out, Mary Brown, the named plaintiff in the case that seeks to bring Obamacare to an end, is the poster child for why the mandates in the ACA are so completely necessary.
Copyright 2012 Forbes.com LLC™ (emphasis in original)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/03/10/plaintiff-in-landmark-anti-obamacare-lawsuit-bankrupted-by-medical-bills-you-and-i-pick-up-her-tab/ [with comments]
===
'Obamacare' plaintiff Brown's bankruptcy: Instant karma?
The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a challenge to the healthcare reform law.
Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images
Paul Whitefield
March 9, 2012 | 6:32 am
What do you call it when someone who is suing to overturn the healthcare reform law files for bankruptcy, listing $4,500 in unpaid medical bills?
Karma? Fate? A lucky break for President Obama?
Really, you can't make this stuff up. Here's what The Times' David Savage wrote Thursday [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ]:
Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.
Brown "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation's case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.
But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills.
Now, you might expect Brown to be a bit, well, chagrined at this turn of events. But remember, as Savage wrote, she "was passionate about the issue."
And she apparently still is:
Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. "I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills," she said angrily. "I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.
"I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control," Brown said. "Who says I don't have insurance right now?"
Who says? Well, Mary, your lawyer for one. Remember: She "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it."
Oh yeah, that. Those lawyers, always running their mouths.
And for that matter, Mary, those aren't your husband's medical bills, at least not anymore. Now that you've filed for bankruptcy, they are probably our medical bills, aren't they?
Although it's not as though Brown is totally anti-government: The couple's Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition said her income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.
So perhaps she intends to put that toward what she owes: "$2,140 to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, $610 to Bay Medical Physicians, $835 to an eye doctor in Alabama and $900 to a specialist in Mississippi."
Or maybe, as the story says, there's that other way out:
"This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year," said Christa Hild, a spokeswoman for the hospital center. "If it's a bad debt, we have to absorb it."
Although when the hospital center says "we," it means "us" -- as in you and I, the ones who do pay for health insurance. We absorb it, in higher premium costs.
It's called the free market, or "there's no free lunch." (It's also why a single-payer system such as Medicare would've been a better option than the law we've got, but that's another post.)
But it's also why the "individual mandate" requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance was put into the law.
Why that is so hard for Brown and millions of other citizens to understand is beyond me.
This isn't Charles Dickens' London: We don't have debtors' prisons. If Brown and her fellow travelers have their way and the healthcare law is ruled unconstitutional, many others will take the risk "of unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control."
And if they get sick, and have medical bills they can't pay, then they won't pay. And neither will the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.
The rest of us will pay.
You see, Mary, the requirement that everyone buy health insurance isn't big bad government taking away your freedom.
It's just common sense.
Copyright 2012 Los Angeles Times
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2012/03/healthcare-reform-law-plaintiff-files-for-bankrupcty-is-it-karma.html [no comments yet]
===
Restating the Obvious
March 11, 2012 - Harry Eagar
This is even better than the revelation that Ron Paul's chief-of-staff didn't bother to buy health insurance and died owing $400,000 in medical bills -- much more than his estate was worth.
The Republican poster girl to get their attack on Obamacare to the Supreme Court is also a medical bill deadbeat.
According to a lengthy story [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ] in the Los Angeles Times (which is NOT being paid attention to by the rightwingers), Mary Brown not only refused to buy insurance, but she also declared bankruptcy in order not to pay her medical bills.
Hilarious quote:
"Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. 'I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills,' she said angrily. 'I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.' "
Other hilarious quote (from lawyers explaining why they chose the logic-challenged Brown as their representative plaintiff:
"Harned said. 'And candidly, it is not as easy as it sounds' to find someone."
Sorta like Joe the Plumber, who would have been a fine example of a small businessman oppressed by government regulation except that, as even a slight inquiry revealed, he didn't bother to comply with government regulations.
Let's hope that if the Republicans control the government next year, they apply more due diligence to, say, what's going on in Russia than they ever have to what's going on in their own party.
Most hilarious quote of all:
" 'I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control,' Brown said. 'Who says I don't have insurance right now?' "
© 2012 The Maui News
http://www.mauinews.com/page/blogs.detail/display/3630/The-real-mandate-problem.html [noc omments yet]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73099703 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=72075001 and preceding and following
Image via Wikipedia
Rick Ungar, Contributor
3/10/2012 @ 12:10PM
Oh, the irony.
Mary Brown is your average, 56 year old Florida resident. And while you may never have heard of Mary, her name is destined to live on in American history as a key player in one of the most important legal cases ever decided by the United States Supreme Court.
Mary Brown is a name plaintiff in one of the challenges to the Affordable Care Act —Obamacare—that will be taken up by the Court in just a few weeks.
Why Mary? When the National Federation of Independent Business was preparing their court challenge, the organization needed an individual to put their name to the lawsuit. Mary Brown fit the bill.
As someone who chose not to purchase health insurance —and felt strongly that the federal government had no business telling her that she had to buy it whether she liked it or not—Mary had become an active and outspoken critic of the law. As a result, she was the perfect candidate to be a human face on the challenge to Obamacare.
As it turns out, Mary is, indeed, a great symbol for the court challenges to the ACA—but not for the side she had in mind.
Last fall, Mary Brown and her husband filed a petition of bankruptcy seeking relief for some $55,000 in debts the couple had run up when they suffered a reversal of fortune in their auto repair business. Like so many Americans who have experienced small business failures during these difficult times, Mary could no longer earn enough money in her business to keep up with her bills and she needed a way out.
The thing is, among the debts listed in the bankruptcy filing are $4500 worth of medical bills—obligations that, presumably, would have largely been paid had Mary chosen to purchase health insurance, something she will be required to do come 2014 when the insurance mandate of the healthcare reform law kicks in.
Almost half of the medical debt run up by the Browns is owed to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Florida. A spokesperson for the hospital [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ] had this say about their experience with the Browns and the many others who cannot pay their medical bills because they have chosen to remain uninsured.
“This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year,” “If it’s a bad debt, we have to absorb it.”
Of course, ‘absorbing it’ means that the loss will be passed along to the rest of us who do take responsibility for the medical obligations that, for almost all of us, are inevitable.
While the bankruptcy court will forgive Mary’s medical debt, taking Brown and her husband off the hook, this by no means suggests that the bills won’t be paid.
In fact, they will.
The bills will be paid by you and they will be paid by me. They will be paid by every American who takes responsibility for planning for their healthcare needs and, as a result, purchases health insurance in the knowledge that almost every one of us will need the coverage at some point in our lives.
The medical providers will pass along the losses suffered as a result of the Browns’ non-payment to the insurance companies by raising the prices the insurance companies pay for the services provided. The insurance companies will, in turn, pass along those increases to their customers by raising the price of our monthly premiums.
It is precisely this cost shifting away from those who will not take personal responsibility for covering the costs of their own health care and onto the rest of us that forms the very basis of the government’s argument as to why Congress acted properly and within the Constitution when creating the insurance mandate as there is a true economic consequence to most Americans when Mary decided to let the rest of us pay for her medical care.
Yes, Mary Brown will be remembered for her role in the war against Obamacare. However, it won’t be for the reason she intended.
As it turns out, Mary Brown, the named plaintiff in the case that seeks to bring Obamacare to an end, is the poster child for why the mandates in the ACA are so completely necessary.
Copyright 2012 Forbes.com LLC™ (emphasis in original)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/03/10/plaintiff-in-landmark-anti-obamacare-lawsuit-bankrupted-by-medical-bills-you-and-i-pick-up-her-tab/ [with comments]
===
'Obamacare' plaintiff Brown's bankruptcy: Instant karma?
The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a challenge to the healthcare reform law.
Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images
Paul Whitefield
March 9, 2012 | 6:32 am
What do you call it when someone who is suing to overturn the healthcare reform law files for bankruptcy, listing $4,500 in unpaid medical bills?
Karma? Fate? A lucky break for President Obama?
Really, you can't make this stuff up. Here's what The Times' David Savage wrote Thursday [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ]:
Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.
Brown "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation's case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.
But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills.
Now, you might expect Brown to be a bit, well, chagrined at this turn of events. But remember, as Savage wrote, she "was passionate about the issue."
And she apparently still is:
Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. "I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills," she said angrily. "I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.
"I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control," Brown said. "Who says I don't have insurance right now?"
Who says? Well, Mary, your lawyer for one. Remember: She "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it."
Oh yeah, that. Those lawyers, always running their mouths.
And for that matter, Mary, those aren't your husband's medical bills, at least not anymore. Now that you've filed for bankruptcy, they are probably our medical bills, aren't they?
Although it's not as though Brown is totally anti-government: The couple's Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition said her income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.
So perhaps she intends to put that toward what she owes: "$2,140 to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, $610 to Bay Medical Physicians, $835 to an eye doctor in Alabama and $900 to a specialist in Mississippi."
Or maybe, as the story says, there's that other way out:
"This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year," said Christa Hild, a spokeswoman for the hospital center. "If it's a bad debt, we have to absorb it."
Although when the hospital center says "we," it means "us" -- as in you and I, the ones who do pay for health insurance. We absorb it, in higher premium costs.
It's called the free market, or "there's no free lunch." (It's also why a single-payer system such as Medicare would've been a better option than the law we've got, but that's another post.)
But it's also why the "individual mandate" requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance was put into the law.
Why that is so hard for Brown and millions of other citizens to understand is beyond me.
This isn't Charles Dickens' London: We don't have debtors' prisons. If Brown and her fellow travelers have their way and the healthcare law is ruled unconstitutional, many others will take the risk "of unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control."
And if they get sick, and have medical bills they can't pay, then they won't pay. And neither will the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.
The rest of us will pay.
You see, Mary, the requirement that everyone buy health insurance isn't big bad government taking away your freedom.
It's just common sense.
Copyright 2012 Los Angeles Times
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2012/03/healthcare-reform-law-plaintiff-files-for-bankrupcty-is-it-karma.html [no comments yet]
===
Restating the Obvious
March 11, 2012 - Harry Eagar
This is even better than the revelation that Ron Paul's chief-of-staff didn't bother to buy health insurance and died owing $400,000 in medical bills -- much more than his estate was worth.
The Republican poster girl to get their attack on Obamacare to the Supreme Court is also a medical bill deadbeat.
According to a lengthy story [ http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story ] in the Los Angeles Times (which is NOT being paid attention to by the rightwingers), Mary Brown not only refused to buy insurance, but she also declared bankruptcy in order not to pay her medical bills.
Hilarious quote:
"Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. 'I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills,' she said angrily. 'I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.' "
Other hilarious quote (from lawyers explaining why they chose the logic-challenged Brown as their representative plaintiff:
"Harned said. 'And candidly, it is not as easy as it sounds' to find someone."
Sorta like Joe the Plumber, who would have been a fine example of a small businessman oppressed by government regulation except that, as even a slight inquiry revealed, he didn't bother to comply with government regulations.
Let's hope that if the Republicans control the government next year, they apply more due diligence to, say, what's going on in Russia than they ever have to what's going on in their own party.
Most hilarious quote of all:
" 'I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control,' Brown said. 'Who says I don't have insurance right now?' "
© 2012 The Maui News
http://www.mauinews.com/page/blogs.detail/display/3630/The-real-mandate-problem.html [noc omments yet]
===
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73099703 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=72075001 and preceding and following
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"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
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upon the Right of Election, 1790
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